


When God closes a door

by belmanoir



Category: Catfish: The TV Show
Genre: Claustrophobia, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2013-11-08
Packaged: 2017-12-31 20:45:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1036178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belmanoir/pseuds/belmanoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's no one Nev would rather be trapped in an elevator with, but there's also no one he'd less like to be trapped in an elevator with. He's been so good about this, and now there's no way to hide from temptation. No way to even back away a couple of steps when temptation starts sidling towards him. He can smell Max's shampoo. Because there isn't a lot of air in the elevator and he and Max are sharing it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When God closes a door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [novelized](https://archiveofourown.org/users/novelized/gifts).



> I would like to thank my brainstorming partner and beta reader (the elevator was her idea! and she came up with most of the puns).

Nev thinks furiously as they head down the hall to the elevator. As the doors close, he stares down the camera. "It's Neevada now, bitches!"

Max half groans and half laughs, like always. Nev wishes he would just admit he thinks it's funny instead of trying to be too cool for school. "Why aren't there any states that start with Max?"

"...Maxachusetts." 

Now that it's just his own camera in there with them, Max gives in and laughs. 

"That was like, the one state I could never learn how to spell," Nev says. "Me and Mississippi are like _this_ , but Massachusetts..."

"So you're saying if you had to spell a state, you wouldn't Massa-choose-it?"

They're both giggling hysterically when the elevator lurches to a stop and the lights go out.

"I think your pun broke the elevator," Nev says, trying to sound like he's just taking this in stride, no big, those lights will be back on any second. His heart is already pounding. 

"I think this is a straw that broke the camel's back sort of situation," Max banters back, not sounding very happy either. 

There's silence. Long, dark silence. The only things Nev can see are the faintly illuminated elevator buttons and the blinking light from Max's camera, saying this moment is being preserved for posterity. The audio, anyway. Something about that is comforting. Later, this will be a fun six seconds of drama in the Nevada episode. They're co-hosts of a popular TV show, and their crew knows where they are. It's not like they could be left here for hours or days before anyone notices they're missing.

Not that the power is likely to be out that long. Nev's just scarred by the 2003 blackout. Rel and Henry were out of town at a festival that weekend. It wasn't fun.

"Should we, like, press the call button?" Max says.

Nev is pretty sure that this counts as a phone call and as host, it's his job to make it.

"Are you okay?" Max asks.

"I'm freaking out a little bit," Nev admits. He presses the call button. Nothing. No one is listening. He's always idly suspected that those buttons are just for show.

"Hello?" a tinny voice says. "Hello?"

"Uh, hi," Nev says hastily. "We're trapped in an elevator? Uh. The Quakertown Marriott?" The blinky red camera light moves closer to his face. Nev inches away.

"The power is out for several blocks around your location," the voice says. "It should be online in the next couple of hours."

Asking won't make the power come back on faster. "Okay. Thank you."

"Are you safe? Is everyone all right?"

"Yes," Nev says. "Thank you." The crackling cuts off, leaving only darkness and silence.

Okay. Everything is fine. Two hours isn't that long. Maybe he won't even have to pee that badly by the time they get out.

He's confused to see Max's camera losing altitude. Then he puts it together with the sounds he's hearing and realizes Max is sitting down. He follows suit. In the dark, he can almost pretend there's open space in front of him. He stretches out his legs. They don't hit the opposite wall. See? Open space.

Max pulls out his phone. "I have reception." 

That's great news. Except that the screen bathes the tiny interior of the elevator in an eerie glow, inexorably illuminating just how small it is. "I think the dark is actually less creepy."

"Come on, get yours out. We'll play Candy Crush. You won't even notice we're in here."

"I'll notice."

"You can't seriously want to sit in the dark," Max says, annoyed.

Nev doesn't say anything. Even deliberately unfocusing his eyes, he can see the walls looming over him, invading his personal space. This is so fucking embarrassing.

Max sighs and puts his phone away. "This sucks. In movies when elevators get stuck it's always sexy."

Nev immediately remembers every movie in which someone has to climb out of an elevator trapped between floors. "Um, I'm pretty sure in movies when elevators get stuck people always almost get their arms cut off."

There's silence as Max reflects. "I guess I was thinking about, like, romantic comedies. You know. Two people trapped in an elevator, one of them starts to have a panic attack, the other one is like, Just focus on my voice. Picture a forest. Imagine water flowing through the forest, and then they fall in love."

Nev thinks that sounds a lot sexier for the person not having the panic attack. He's also, abruptly, thinking about Max's voice and how much he loves it. Which doesn't make him feel less claustrophobic. There's no one he'd rather be trapped in an elevator with, but there's also no one he'd less like to be trapped in an elevator with. He's been so good about this, and now there's no way to hide from temptation. No way to even back away a couple of steps when temptation starts sidling towards him. 

He can smell Max's shampoo. Because there isn't a lot of air in the elevator and he and Max are sharing it. 

The camera comes closer.

"Can you get that out of my face?" Nev says sharply.

The camera stops, then comes forward again, wobbling up and down accompanied by spooky ghost noises from Max.

"Stop it." Nev puts up a hand too fast and almost knocks the camera across the elevator. 

" _Are_ you having a panic attack?" Max asks, carefully using the same matter-of-fact, it's-no-trouble voice as _Do you want to stop and get a burger?_

"No. But I really don't like it in here, and I would prefer to not have to listen to my own nervous babble later."

There's a pause, and the red light switches off. "Well, if we need to make out to get you through this difficult time, I guess I'm ready to make that sacrifice."

Nev is about 86.3% sure it's a joke. He tries to decide if this is the context he'd want to have his first kiss with Max in. It's not ideal, he concludes, but he'll take what he can get. Also it would be really nice to be touching Max right now. "Can I come sit by you?"

"Sure." He hears a noise that might be Max moving some of his shit to make space. 

"Which side of you is clear?"

"Um. The left. My left."

Nev inches around and crashes into Max's luggage.

"Sorry, your left."

Which is one of the many reasons Max doesn't get to drive. The suitcase nearly hits Nev in the face as it's lifted out of the way, and Max tugs him against his side. "The power will be back on soon."

Nev shuts his eyes and pictures sunlight sparkling on a stream. He tries to imagine the clean dry rustling of wind in leaves.

Max ruffles his hair. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Don't patronize me."

Max takes his hand away. Nev wishes he hadn't snapped. He presses up against Max. 

***

"What time is it?" Nev asks.

Max turns on his phone. Wasn't the wall farther away last time? Nev reminds himself this is an elevator, not a trash compactor. 

Or...is it?

"It's been half an hour," Max says.

"Do you think a horror movie about an elevator that was also a trash compactor would be any good?"

Max considers. "Not really, no." 

Nev tries to think of a pun title for his doomed horror movie. He can't. "I can't pun anymore," he says. "I think panic has--no wait, I'm punicking. Oh, thank god, I've still got it. I'm triumphing over adversity through pluck and willpower. The incredible story of one man's journey...without moving an inch." He has to stop to take a breath. "Is it harder to breathe than it was earlier? No, it must be my imagination. You know how active my imagination is. I'm suggestible, even. I mean, some people call me gullible, but I don't think that's entirely fair. Well, maybe." 

"I don't think the elevator is airtight," Max says, indulgent and amused.

"Are you sure?" He really, really wants to believe it. He knows it makes logical sense, even. But the heart has its reasons.

There's a pause. "I'm going to stand up for a second, okay?"

Nev leans away. He misses Max immediately. 

Max stands. There are vague, incomprehensible noises. Then Max jumps. Just a little, but Nev's heart almost leaps out of his chest. "What are you doing? You'll snap the cable or something."

"I'm trying to move a ceiling panel," Max says. "I'm going to use my phone for a second to see where the panels are, okay?"

Nev shuts his eyes. "Yeah."

Light flares, holds for a few seconds. "I think I can do it if I climb up on the railing. Can you point the phone flashlight?"

Nev opens his eyes reluctantly. Oh god. He feels like a sardine. He's sorry for all the sardines he's eaten in his life. If he makes it out of here, he'll never eat another one. 

He points the flashlight in the direction Max indicates. He's really not enjoying the way the floor trembles every time Max tries to get a toehold on the railing and fails, but he also really wants that ceiling panel moved. Max toes off his shoes. Nev shuts his eyes again. More scuffling, fabric sliding against stainless steel. A creak and a clink. "Ha! Got it." The entire elevator shakes when Max drops back to the floor. 

Nev takes a quick glance at the glorious dark rectangle in the ceiling and switches off the phone. Can he actually feel the new cool air, or is it his overactive imagination? It doesn't matter. His lungs expand. He isn't in a taped-shut box anymore. "Thanks, dude."

Max slides down next to him again and slings an arm around his shoulder--but he doesn't go for the hair this time. "Is there anything else I can do?" he asks in that same matter-of-fact voice. Nev really appreciates that he isn't making a big deal out of this or acting like Nev's freakout is freaking him out. He isn't even giving Nev shit, although that's sure to come later.

It occurs to Nev that if something crawled in through the ceiling panel, they'd be trapped with it. He isn't sure what he thinks is in the elevator shaft. Agent Smith? Those aliens from _Attack the Block?_

Why did he think about that? "Are those makeouts still up for grabs?" 

Nev meant it as like, 95% a joke, but there's a pause before Max laughs. "Are there security cameras in here?" His tone could go either way, joke or not joke.

Usually things aren't quite so ambiguous when someone isn't interested. Although of course maybe that's just wishful thinking. Nev is all about putting yourself out there, but if things get awkward with Max, that's a big deal. It's a mess with the show, a mess with his brother, a mess with the guy who's kind of his best friend right now.

Max's hand on his shoulder slides lower, his thumb stroking comfortingly up Nev's arm and under the sleeve of his T-shirt as he pulls Nev a little closer. It could be a friend gesture or a sexy gesture. Either way it's really sweet.

"Look, you're facing down a phobia," Max says. "I don't want you to do anything in the adrenaline-rush of the moment that you're going to feel weird about later."

Nev takes a deep breath. The walls are closing in on him. He has to push them back. He has to open up. He has to _be._ "Does that mean you want to?"

There's another pause. "I mean, I've thought about it. It's not a big deal. Anyone who's read the comments on your Instagram knows you're a pretty attractive guy."

Nev tries to decide what to say. This is good news. Amazing news. But his body still feels anxious and buzzing, like a human-shaped beehive.

"Look, we don't have to have this conversation now," Max says again, as if he's imposing on Nev by being attracted to him. "I could call up the elevator lady and throw my weight around instead. MTV is losing money right now. This hotel could be looking at a lawsuit."

Nev knows Max hates acting like a big-shot. "I love it when you get all protective. You're like a mother hen."

"Are there gray hens?" Max wonders.

Nev opens his mouth to answer, then realizes..."I have no idea." If there's one thing they've learned from doing the show, it's that they're a couple of city slickers. They both laugh, only a little awkwardly. "I've thought about it too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Nev says with great emphasis.

Max laughs. "My bedhead _is_ irresistible."

Max has no idea how incredible he looks in the morning light from a hotel window, warm skin and silver-and-ice hair against impersonal white sheets. He has no idea how much Nev has thought about photographing him. Now that this is on the table, Nev doesn't want to wait one more second. "Look, can we just--?"

"Hey," Max says, low and smiling, "just focus on my voice."

"I focus on your voice a lot," Nev confesses. "I was thinking earlier, it's weird, like, you know how people hate hearing themselves on other people's answering machines, because their voice doesn't--"

Max kisses him. 

They've never done this, but it's familiar. He recognizes the texture of Max's lips, the scrape of his stubble, the way he holds Nev's face in place with his fingers so he can find his mouth in the dark. Nev kisses him back, all at once feeling totally, completely safe. Fuck the elevator. Elevator: 1, Nev: a million. He tangles his fingers in Max's hair. He's found a lot of excuses to touch Max's hair--well, he doesn't need _excuses._ It's not like Max has ever objected. Touching your friend's hair is normal. But he's never been able to do _this,_ slide in and hold on, his palm against the nape of Max's neck. "Nev," Max breathes. 

Nev has heard Max say his name probably over a billion times in his life. It was all build-up, and this is the payoff. Life is a thing of wonder. When God closes a door, He opens a ceiling panel. Nev murmurs, half satisfaction and half plea, and Max pulls back for a moment just so that he can start to kiss Nev again. Nev imagines they're in a forest, green afternoon laziness broken up now and then by the fraught sweet urgency of beginning.

Max's hand slides under his t-shirt. "Is this okay?"

Nev nods as quickly as possible. _Oh my god._ Max is touching his stomach. Max's beautiful hand is stroking the hair above his bellybutton. Nev realizes that he is very, very hard.

"Was that a yes or a no?"

Nev remembers Max can't see him. "It was a yes. A definite yes. A yes please, even."

Max's hand cradles his ribcage, his thumb curling and uncurling across Nev's nipple. His other hand is doing something not related to Nev. His shoulder moves, he shifts his weight, and it clicks into place: Max is adjusting himself. 

Max is hard too. Max is turned on by touching him.

Max really does want to make out with him. Wow.

That thumb strokes across his nipple again. Nev is glad Max moved the ceiling panel because he would definitely have used up all the air. "Holy shit. Max. Do that again."

Max pushes the t-shirt up. "I'm going in," he announces. His mouth closes around Nev's nipple. Nev moans extremely loudly, and Max bites him. 

Nev's been trying to be less stupid about things. He was actually proud of his impulse control not telling Max how he felt, and now it turns out he could have been making out with Max all this time. "What do you want?" he asks. Whatever it is, Max can have it.

"I don't think I have a short answer for that." Max tucks his fingers in the waistband of Nev's khakis and tugs lightly. "God, this is stupid."

"Let's be stupid," Nev says, more intensely than he meant to. "Come on, Max."

"Alright, but if we get arrested for public indecency I'm blaming you." Max leans in for a kiss and misses, his mouth landing on Nev's chin. He doesn't miss on the second try, and Nev is so lost in what an amazing kisser Max is that his belt being fumblingly unbuckled and his pants unzipped are almost background noise. "You sure this is okay?" Max whispers against his mouth. 

Nev pushes his hips up at Max's hands. Max breathes in sharply. His fingers feel their way tentatively in Nev's khakis, finding his dick and stroking. Nev makes kind of a scary noise and kisses him desperately. Max slides his other hand up Nev's chest again, toying with his nipple. "Tell me when you're going to come." The rasp in his voice draws out, rougher than usual.

"Is it okay that I'm being kind of selfish right now?" Nev asks. 

Max laughs. He jacks Nev fast and gentle. "Dude, you asked what I wanted." 

Oh, right. So this must be what Max wants. That works out well, because the idea of stopping is physically painful.

"Tell me how you feel," Max says in the same tone of voice he might say _sit over there, the light's better_ or _do a search on her phone number_. The same low-key certainty that Nev will. 

It took Nev a while to get back in the dirty-talk game after the entire world saw how bad he was at it at 24. He still isn't all that confident. "Okay, but...but no giving me shit if I say something embarrassing." Even in the dark, even with most of his brain focused on the handjob he's getting, he can tell Max is amused by that. "I'm...ungh...I'm serious, Max. You can share your personal pre...preferences...but don't make fun of me."

"Okay." There's a grin in his voice.

Nev takes a slow, deep breath and focuses on how he feels. "I'm a little bummed that I can't see you doing that, because you're extremely handsome. I feel like I'm probably going to get a crick in my neck later from leaning against this wall, but I can't...shit...Max...pinch me like that again...I like it when you're feisty." He brings his hands up to Max's hair again, and then down to his shoulders. Max's shoulders are nice. Very solid. He digs his fingers in and Max groans, the deeply satisfied noise he makes when he falls back onto a hotel bed at the end of a long day. 

"I feel like I'm about to come," Nev says, "except I'm not, I'm just...really turned on, and I'm trying to relax and not be goal...goal-oriented about it, only...oh my god, Max, fuck MTV, I just want to have sex with you all day every day."

"Let's do it," Max says. "We'll embezzle some cash, quit the show, and buy a love nest on a tropical island." His affectionate drawl rubs across Nev's nerve endings like a boar-bristle brush. 

"I think it's almost time to grab the baby wipes."

"Baby wipes? Tell me you aren't planning to stuff semen-covered baby wipes into your suitcase. That's really gross."

Nev doesn't think it's that gross. He could put them in the ziplock bag with his toiletries and throw them away in the airport bathroom. "Do you have a better plan?"

There's a pause. "I kind of figured I'd swallow the evidence." Max pauses again. Nev pumps into his fist with speechless gratitude. "Is that moving too fast?" 

"What was I thinking, putting baby wipes in my suitcase?" Nev manages. "You're..." He runs out of halfway decent patter. "Your idea is much smarter."

Max retreats down Nev's chest, his hand still working. "I've been thinking about this a lot." 

Wow. "Yeah? What do I do in your fantasy?" 

"You totally lose it," Max says, fondly deadpan. "You beg." His mouth closes around the head of Nev's dick, hot and soft and wet, the same mouth that just said _You totally lose it_. Nev flails out desperately for his phone and turns it on, aiming the screen directly at Max, who blinks and squints up at him with that incredible Max smile that's too wholeheartedly happy to be sly or sheepish but is both anyway. Only it's just his eyes, he isn't actually _smiling_ because Nev's dick is in his mouth.

"Please," Nev says, remembering vaguely that Max wanted him to beg. "Please. Oh my god, Max, I need, I want, let me just..." He almost puts his hand over Max's to set the rhythm he needs--but as badly as he wants to come, he wants to wait too. He wants Max to give him this. "Aaahhh...please, please please please." The phone falls from his hand, staring blankly at the ceiling for a few seconds before winking out. "I can't...Max, _please,_ " he says urgently, as if Max can actually control when he comes. He reaches up to rub his own nipples. Yes. Yes yes yes, "I'm so close. I'm so fucking close. Please just..."

Max's tongue massages him. Nev doesn't understand how he can feel this good and not be coming. Everything is a sweet, razor-sharp ache. Feeling hot and thwarted, he moans and pants and scrapes his nails across his nipples and shudders into Max's hand and mouth. "Come on, just...I hope this is losing it enough for you because I..." He forgets words. Max hums in approval. Nev strains and reaches and then, almost unexpectedly, comes so hard he sees stars--bright bursts of light like a camera flash through closed eyelids.

There is a sudden absence of Max, his hand and mouth disappearing. Nev isn't sure how much time has passed. A few soft sounds suggest Max might be making a _that-tasted-weird_ face. "Do you have a water bottle?"

Nev can't move. "Somewhere." He lifts an arm a few inches and serendipitously collides with Max's chest. Gripping his shirt, he pulls him forward. "Kiss me."

Max does, his fingers coming up to tenderly trace around Nev's ear. The gesture would make more sense if his hair were longer, but Nev's heart thrills anyway. "How you doing?" Max asks. He sounds smug, like he already knows.

"Good," Nev says. "I'm much less scared since you popped that ceiling panel and went down on me." 

"Think you're doing well enough to give me a hand here?" His casual delivery is overlaid on breathless, amused arousal. Nev can't wait to hear how he sounds when he's actually being given a hand. He trails his fingers down--

The lights come back on and the elevator shudders. They both flinch back, blinking. Nev hurries to right his clothing, as if someone had walked in on them. "You have got to be fucking kidding me," Max says. 

Nev knows he shouldn't laugh. Too late.

"You are such an asshole," Max says, shoving him lightly, but he can't stop grinning. He's really happy, Nev realizes. Not about his blue balls, obviously, but about this. About him and Nev. 

There's an unexpected moment of silence as they both (Nev assumes) get distracted thinking about Nev's asshole and the things Max will hopefully be putting up it in the near future, including but possibly not limited to his penis.

The elevator lurches downwards. "I win," Nev says, seamlessly picking up the thread of totally getting to come before the power went back on. 

"It's not a competition!"

"You're only saying that because I won." He reaches over and coaxes Max's disarrayed hair back into a beautiful flame.

Max looks down at his crotch as the floors count down. "Think of not hot things _really fast._ "

"Slugs," Nev suggests. "Eating slugs. The subway."

"You're joking, right? The subway is totally hot."

Nev blinks. "Dick Cheney."

Max makes a complicated and lengthy retching noise. "Thank you."

Nev claps him on the back. "Anything for a friend."

Max's eyes gleam at him. 

"It's only going to get better from here," Nev promises just as the elevator doors open. He collapses onto solid ground, kissing the carpet on impulse and then really wishing he hadn't.

When he looks back Max is rolling his eyes, but Nev knows he thinks so too.


End file.
